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Adventures in Dress Renting

Cue the zingy infomercial music because I've got some OMG too-good-to-be-true news for you: Got a fancy-ish party coming up soon and nothing to wear? Well, how would you like to be able to wear a new designer dress for about 90% off the price? And how'd you like to cut to the front of the line and test-drive this thing stat? If you answered "um, hells yeah" to these questions then you might want to indulge in a little Friday procrastination and get a load of this:

Earlier this week, found myself in a tricky fashion sitch: I had somewhere fancy to go (our awe-inspiring Women of the Year Awards at Carnegie Hall!) but nothing to wear (all my spiffy, but under-used stuff is currently stashed away at my mom's house since my apartment is roughly the size of this Barbie dream house). Normally having somewhere fun to go good problem to have—kind of like having new 30 Rock, Top Chef and Gossip Girl episodes on your TiVo and not knowing which one to watch first—but since I really didn't want to spend too much dough (I've got a wedding to save up for, and as you ladies know, the Big Day ain't exactly cheap!) So instead of buying some new big ticket item, I just rented a dress, Blockbuster-style, via RenttheRunway.com.

After letting the founders of the brand-spanking-new site--two super smart and super stylish business school grads who happen to both be named Jennifer--know which dress I wanted, they sent me not one but two of the dresses in a pretty garment bag. (All the Renttherunway rentals allow you to get two different sizes of the same dress at the same time with--no additional cost--just in case one size fits better than the other!) In another thoughtful move, the RtheR folks include a cute little "Fit Kit"--which included a deodorant-removing sponge, bra strap clips and fabric tape--in all the garment delivery bags to help take care of any last-minute wardrobe glitches. Since it was delivered right to the office I was able to change at work--they have same-day delivery in NYC and overnight to the rest of the country--it made the whole day-to-night switcheroo super easy. After my speedy Clark Kent-to-Superman change, when I wandered down the hallway in my spangly party dress I got a slew of compliments and questions about my "new" dress that went a little bit like this:

The ADAM sequin dress, as seen on RenttheRunway, and me at the office in my borrowed dress!

Q: What seriously rented your dress? How long to you get to keep it for? A: Four days! And then when you're done, you just pop in the mail like a Netflix return.

Q: Does it look or feel like someone else's dress? A: Nope. Each dress is carefully inspected and dry cleaned before being sent onto the next renter. Mine came in pristine plastic bags and a cloth garment bag.

Q: How much does it cost to rent something? A: Anywhere from $50 to $200 for dresses that usually cost $600 to $2000 (or more!). And you don't have to pay anything to be a "member" of RenttheRunway.

Q: That's still kind of a lot. A: Yeah but it's better than spending a lot of money for a fancy dress you're only going to wear once every two years--or less. (I've still got the buyer's remorse for one long satin gown that I bought for a friend's wedding and never got a chance to wear again.) Q: I don't think I could rent something. I'd be too afraid that I'd spill something on it. A: Just get the $5 "insurance" and you won't have to worry about it.

Q: What if there aren't any good dresses--or dresses in my size--available when I want to rent? A: You can reserve them ahead of time. Each dress rental page has a little rental calendar next to it so you can tell when it's available.

But the question I got the most was "OMG! I SO need to do that! Where do I sign up?" and I gave 'em the same shortcut that I'll give you: you lovely Glamour readers can click here to skip the membership wait list! Got any other questions about how this works? Think you'd ever try it if you had a big party, date or other must-impress-everyone-asap event? If you could wear any of these dresses (all of 'em are on RenttheRunway!) for one night, which would you choose?